Grants, Trusts & Foundations

Grants, Trusts and Foundations

As an educational arts charity and one of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations, the Serpentine gratefully receives 14% of its annual operating income from Arts Council England.

The Serpentine works with a range of trusts and foundations, corporate sponsors and individuals to raise the remaining 86% of funds necessary to run its world-class artistic, education, community and public programmes.

As a registered charity and public art gallery, the Serpentine benefits enormously from the support of UK and international charitable trusts and foundations for its Art, Architecture and Design Exhibitions, for example The Henry Moore Foundation, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and Kunststiftung NRW. Exhibition Programme supporters often contribute to catalogue production costs, exhibition installation and de-installation costs and transport of works.

The Serpentine is also hugely grateful to the supporters of its Education Programme such as The Baring Foundation, Outset Contemporary Art Fund, Heritage Lottery Fund, and the Ernest Cook Trust. Education is at the heart of all the Serpentine does and it is only with the support of educational charitable trusts and foundations that the Galleries can help the wide cross-section of families, children, young people, vulnerable elderly people, and isolated migrants that it does.

The Serpentine’s Public Programmes have been supported by cultural institutes from all over the world. Demonstrative of its culturally diverse programme, the Serpentine Galleries have recently benefitted from the generous support of the Royal Norwegian Embassy, Goethe-Institut London and the Italian Cultural Institute, for example, who have contributed to educational public talks, a sound commission series and artist residencies.

Supporter Quotes

The Serpentine Gallery is an exemplar in the London visual arts portfolio for its commitment to artist-led participatory projects which are integrated in the mainstream artistic programme and for its long standing relationships with local communities.Peter Heslip, Director of Visual Arts, Arts Council England

Having made awards in 2002 for Toyo Ito and in 2009 for Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA, the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation is again delighted to have given a grant to the Serpentine Gallery towards the commission of its 2013 Pavilion. This latest design by Sou Fujimoto is an exciting continuation of his experimental approach to architecture. Our grant goes towards the Serpentine’s education and outreach programme and to a special talk to be given by Fujimoto on the Pavilion’s opening night when he will discuss his working processes and the very particular Japanese influences behind the Pavilion’s design and concept.Representative of the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, UK